Polite Dissent

Amazing Spider-Man #541 “Back in Black, part 3 of 5”
J. Michael Straczynski, writer
Ron Garney, penciler

Aunt May has been shot by an assassin’s bullet meant for Peter. Critically wounded, she lies in the hospital’s intensive care unit, kept alive only by machines. Talking to Mary Jane, Peter explains that he wants to give Aunt May a transfusion.

Peter: Do you remember me telling you how I once had some doctors give Aunt May a transfusion of my blood? It saved her life.

I think Peter is misunderstanding the previous situation. The transfusion saved May’s life because she was dangerously anemic after surgery. That’s it. Her recovery had nothing to do with any special spider blood.

Of course, Straczynski appears to have given Peter special healing blood as a new power, though it’s not clear where he came up with this idea. Admittedly, in the Sins Past storyline, a transfusion of Peter’s blood did save Sarah’s life, but that was described as the spider blood canceling out the “tainted” Osborn blood. I don’t think Aunt May has any Osborn blood.

Peter: When they did the transfusion they purified it, taking out everything but the red blood cells to avoid fluid overload. My white blood cells could have saved her from that reaction.
Peter: So it would have to be a straight-up transfusion. No doctors to purify things or get in the way.

Peter is right: fluid overload is one of the reasons PRBCs (packed red blood cells) are used instead of whole blood. The Amazing Spider-Man #10 shows it differently than Peter describes it — no purification, no centrifuging — the blood is pretty much taken from Peter and given directly to May.

While it may be true that Peter’s white blood cells will prevent the radiation poisoning (it seems a stretch to me, but this is a comic book after all), a whole blood transfusion is still risky. May’s a great deal sicker this time, and if fluid overload would have been bad before, it will be even worse now. There’s also more of a chance of a transfusion reaction with whole blood. With packed red cells, you have to worry about the recipient’s serum reacting with the donor cells. With whole blood, in addition to donor cell/recipient serum reactions, you also have to worry about the reverse: the donor’s serum reacting with the recipient’s cells.

Mary Jane sneaks into the (strangely unlocked) store room and gets the necessary equipment to transfuse Peter’s blood. The transfusion art is little off — for instance what is Peter doing with the syringe? And why is he sporting a bandage over his bandage on his arm? These are nit-picks though, and overall Garney does a good job with the medical scenes (though May needs an endotracheal tube, and not just a face mask).

Related Posts:
Amazing Spider-Man #10 — Peter gives Aunt May a transfusion
Aunt May’s Radiation Sickness — Listen bud, he’s got radioactive blood.
The Sins Past storyline — Peter gives Sarah a transfusion